Do you cook from scratch?

I cook every thing from scratch. I have to

I cook most things from scratch, and am a quick cook because of much practice and I suppose it is the same for most of you on GN
There are two local specialities I like, one is similar to ravioli, pasta parcels. ALDI's are very good and we have them once fortnight. They are cut into strips and fried with a couple of eggs broken over them right at the last minute. Then green salad with it.
Once when teaching English with a migraine, I told the class I didn't know what to cook and they suggested this - it is every mother's dream dish and my GCs all love it.
Today we had my favourite Lamb Stew and I love it and also do meat stew with individual Yorkshire puddings. I'm glad I am a good enough cook to prepare the dishes I remember from my childhood in Yorkshire.

I also cook everything from scratch unless its a last minute thing!

Ive just started my own Indian Vegetarian food range and do home parties - called Bollywood Nights at Home.
If your interested you can contact me via Gransnet or visit www.bnah.co.uk/cooking-parties/

Ate at DD's house yesterday and, for quickness, we had some ready-braised beef from Marks and Sparks with our roast potatos and veg. Was really nice.

I think it's the sauce that comes with ready meals that is so good. Saves so much faffing. (And the buying of expensive ingredients that you may only use once in a long while).

NfkDumpling there are two of us and we've had our Actifry for around four years. I find it invaluable for doing butternut squash 'chips'. Also for wedges and I've even done meatballs in it. The central paddle has broken over the years and I've found it easy to replace by looking online under'Actifry spares'. The last one was on Amazon. Other than that we've had no trouble with it. I would highly reommend it.

I have always planned meals a week at a time, with one eye on the calendar for the week. DH had a job that took him away from home at very short notice for indefinite periods of time but. I always found it easier to adjust menus day to day than plan meals from day to day. But I had a freezer and I used the delay cooking facility on my cooker a lot, so often prepared the evening meal before I went to work.

Thanks for the info on the active fry Bez. I was wondering if it was worth having for just two of us. We jettisoned the deep fat fryer decades ago but this sounds as if it may make a good pressie for DH. It sounds quite versatile and would probably suit quite a few of his recipes.

I make my curries from scratch Susie and I also avoid gluten but my spices don't contain any. Do you buy spice mixes or the individual spices?

There's no way I could feed all my lot on ready meals - I'd be broke in no time. The Wonderful Man bakes all the bread and often makes 'afternoon tea' contributions, plus an occasional meal. He would really be affronted to be given a ready meal and I can't think of a time when I've done so. It really isn't hard to cook from scratch and it's not even particularly time consuming, but I do understand the frustration of working out what to make each day. The WM simply looks at what's available and is confident and inventive enough to make things up on the spot; he simply can't stand waste of any sort. On Friday a colleague at work gave him some pears and bananas that were 'on the turn', and we had half a dozen people coming round for a meal so he made a banana, pear and redcurrant jelly crumble for pudding. I couldn't even begin to get my head around such a combination, but it turned out to be delicious.
We eat a lot of pork because we buy a couple of piglets each year that are raised by a friend on our behalf, but obviously we can't serve that up to our (Muslim) boys so I sometimes end up cooking two different meals for dinner. My challenge after the summer holidays is to get both the boys cooking at least one meal a week each. When they first came to live with me they were astounded at how quickly I can prepare a meal from scratch as they told me the women in their family spent most of the day preparing food.

I cook everything from scratch, apart from curry, as so many of the curry spices had snuck gluten into them, so I rely on a jar of gluten free from asda rather than poison myself

I cook everything from scratch, usually in batches, and freeze it, so we can have whatever we want! Just had a roast lamb dinner , which is going to give us at least 4 more various dinners! Great value! Having said all that , I have severe heart failure and can't work , so I have plenty of time to cook. It must be hard for those of you , who go out to work

Hmm! I like to think I do cook from scratch..and in fact I have just come to sit down after having made some kofta and also a bolognese sauce. Not sure which to have tonight and which to have tomorrow. But ate out in Tooting on Thursday at a new 'gastro pub' and a Vietnamese meal in Shoreditch last night and a take away on Friday.... so no halo for me

I too, usually cook from scratch. I make chutney and apple jelly and make some bread in a bread maker. I enjoy cookery programmes and like to try some new ideas. I sometimes google ingredients that I want to use together to find a suitable recipe.
I have tried a few ready meals but they are usually disappointing and expensive. For my DH they don't provide big enough portions!
I think that a lot of younger people rely too heavily on ready meals and take aways and then wonder why they have a weight problem.

I usually cook from scratch, and I love preserving things we grow. I also enjoy making sauces, pickles and cordials. Bread is usually homemade, and I even make butter if I see cram being sold cheaply.

One thing I really enjoy is finding ways of using leftovers in different ways - I try to buy meat joints, for instance, that will make at least 3 meals

Chicory is sooo cheap here- and soooo expensive in the UK- great for salad, especially if mixed with other salad stuff as it is a little bitter. We also like it cooked- par boiled wiht lemon juice, then cooled a little and the water 'squeezed' from centre, wrapped in ham and put in oven dish- covered with white sauce (I make with herbs and cornflour- easier and without the fat) with a little grated gruyère or Cheddar on top and gratinated in oven- a meal on its own, and, as said, so cheap here in Winter.

In our house we cook from scratch. DH does all the Italian meals but I cook when we have curry or stir fry and I make all the "sweet" stuff such as cakes, puddings and preserves. I also chuck the ingredients in the bread maker for our "toast" bread!! We also keep chickens so like Granjura we eat (and give away) quite a lot of eggs and our own chicken!
We don't have any take aways here apart from pizzerias. We do have a cheap and cheerful hosteria in town where you can get a good meal with a carafe of for €10 to €12 a head!!

Yes granjura we find the same with going out to eat. Often when we go shopping we have a lunch out in a little bistro in the shopping complex. We frequently have the menu - three courses for 11€ - then we sometimes eat combinations we have not tried before. I find chicory to be versatile and use it quite a lot having avoided it for years!

I'm so lucky my DH loves to cook from scratch and cooks all our meals. Sometimes if he get home late we get a takeaway, which is always a disappointment.

I mostly cook from scratch but tend to bulk cook and freeze for lazy days

Like several other people, I did much more labour intensive cooking when I was younger and busier. But I also had a lot more energy then, and a determination to prove myself. Not sure to whom, but I was a bit driven!

Now, as others have said, I am SO bored with cooking, but because I am a coeliac and have to eat gluten-free food, my options on the ready-mades are very limited. So I do cook mostly from scratch, but as quickly and easily as I can. Husband does cook, but has only one or two set recipes, so can't throw a meal together with whatever is in fridge/freezer. I make an effort to be more innovative if we have guests, but often wish we could just take a pill and not have to think about food!!

LOL Icylittle ;) The Brasserie in Pontarlier is good too.

Agree about pastry- but I refuse to buy products which contain the dreaded palm oil- which is contained in most bought pastry- but finally found one which is butter only- so that is OK. And agree about portion control- I also tend to cook too much- so I can freeze- but OH always says, shall we have a bit more... and we do, and then the left-overs not enough for a second meal- so we finish for supper ;) a disaster. At least ready meals mean that the portion is fixed.

Which is why are am quite a bit more chubby than you (:

Granjura your post makes me homesick for France!
I cook pretty much everything from scratch but I don't usually make my own pasta, and I am lazy about puff pastry too. I do get bored with everyday 'cooking to live' though, rather than for pleasure like entertaining. I have always loved having a line-up of my chutneys and jams even though I give quite a lot of it away now. The problem is that I am incapable of cooking for only the two of us and we end up eating more than we should even if I freeze some. It's why I am fat a bit chubby.

granjura going out for the menu of the day "menu del dia" is one of the only things that I miss about living abroad,I think over the years we must have tried every dish on all the menu's in our village and never really had a bad experience at all all excellent and far cheaper than buying and preparing at home.

I find Marks and Sparks' ready meals quite healthy. Mainly because of the mile and a quarter walk each way I do to get them.

You are all very industrious. Where do you find the motivation/energy? (I think)